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Tetradrachm Coin from the Bar Kokhba Revolt
Brief Introduction This small silver coin was purchased by the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in 1947https://www.ashmolean.org/tetradrachm-judaea . The coin is from the Roman province of Judaea (modern day Israel). A symbol of Hebrew rebellion against the Romans, the coin was minted during the Bar Kokhba revolt from 132-135 CE. The coin is currently housed in the Heberden Coin Room https://www.ashmolean.org/money-gallery at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. Technical Evaluation The Hebrew tetradrachm was made by stamping over a Roman silver coin with Hebrew symbols and markings. The Temple side of the coin depicts the Second Temple of Jerusalem that was destroyed by the Romans during the first Jewish revolt in 70 CE. The Hebrew inscription on the temple side says "Simon" in reference to Simon (Bar Kokhba) who led the revolt. The curving line above the Temple is one of the few representations of the temple's facade and possibly depicts a grapevine motif common in Hellenistic architecture from the eastern Mediterranean in the period Sporty 1983, 121-123. On the opposite side there is a depiction of palm branches and citrus that are used during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, when Jews are supposed to make their pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem. On this side the Hebrew inscription says "for the freedom of Jerusalem". Signs of the original portrait of Trajan can be seen on the palm branch sidehttps://www.ashmolean.org/tetradrachm-judaea. Thousands of Jewish coins from the Bar Kokhba revolt were found circulating in the antiquities market as a result of looting archaeological sites in the 19th and 20th century. A smaller minority of coins has been found by archaeologists in caves used by the rebels around Jerusalem Milstein 2010, 68. This particular coin was purchased, not discovered, in 1947 by the University of Oxford https://www.ashmolean.org/tetradrachm-judaea. Local Historical Context The Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135 CE) was spurred on by a number of different causes, most of which relating to Emperor Hadrian's relationship with the Jews within the Roman Empire. At the beginning of his reign, Hadrian spent much of his time traveling throughout his vast empire building relationships with the different subject peoples and consolidating territory from past campaigns. In the eastern Mediterranean, Hadrian focused on building a stronger connection between the Romans and the Greeks. As various conflicts occurred between the Greeks and the Jews, Hadrian remained biased towards the Greek perspective, and created a number of laws that favored the Greeks and/or persecuted the Jews Morehead 2008, 155. Hadrian began a series of policies that were focused on Hellenizing the Jews in the Eastern Empire. These policies included banning circumcision, creation of a Roman colony (Aelia) in Jerusalem, and the construction of a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus over the site of the Second Temple of Jerusalem https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bar-Kokhba-Jewish-leader. Some Jewish rabbinical sources also state that Hadrian promised the Jews that the Temple of Jerusalem would be rebuilt, but retracted the offer Chancey and Porter 2001, 188. The Jewish revolt was led by Simon ben Kosiba in 132 CE. Simon was considered by many Jews at the time to be the "Messiah of Israel" and was given the name Bar Kokhba which translates to "Son of a Star." This is in reference to the prophecy ‘there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel’ (Numbers 24:17) https://www.ashmolean.org/tetradrachm-judaea. Archaeological evidence shows that the rebels under Bar Kokhba controlled the region south of Jerusalem, north of Hebron and Masada, east of the coastal plain, and west of the Dead Sea Chancey and Porter 2001, 188. There are Roman sources that worried greatly about the revolt spreading to neighboring provinces in the Eastern Empire like Syria, Arabia, and Egypt. Jewish forces dug a series of tunnels and used guerrilla warfare to devastating effect on the Roman legions. Fear of the spreading revolt spurred Hadrian to bring more manpower to bear down onto the Jewish rebels, crushing them in 135 CE Werner 1999, 86. Coins were minted during the revolt to signify Jewish sovereignty against the pagan Romans. The tetradrachms did not depict any pagan symbols and instead displayed important Jewish symbols relating to the Temple of Jerusalem and Simon Chancey and Porter 2001, 175. World-Historical Context The idea of an independent Jewish Israel in the second century was crushed by Hadrian, and the damage to the Romans was so great that Hadrian sought to remove Judaism from Judaea. The Jews in Judaea were deported to various parts of the Roman empire like North Africa, and Hadrian renamed the province Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina. The period after the Bar Kokhba revolt was marked by heavy Romanization of the province through temple construction, road building, and Roman city planning. Jews were forbidden to enter the city of penalty of death for many years following the revolt Chancey and Porter 2001, 189-190. The region of Judaea was forever transformed by the revolt, and for over a thousand years the name Palestine became inseparable from the area around Jerusalem 2008, 156. Although tetradrachms and other forms of coinage can be found in other cultures in the region, the Bar Kokhba tetradrachm coins symbolize the last Jewish control of Jerusalem until the twentieth century. Bibliography Chancey, Mark A., and Adam Porter. “The Archaeology of Roman Palestine.” Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 64, no. 4, Dec. 2001, pp. 164–203. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2307/3210829. Milstein, Mati. "ARTIFACT." Archaeology : A Magazine Dealing with the Antiquity of the World. 63.1 (2010): 68-68. Web. Porat, Roi. "Finds from the Bar Kokhba Revolt from Two Caves at En Gedi." Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 139.1 (2007): 35-53. Web. Kloner, Amos. “Underground Hiding Complexes from the Bar Kokhba War in the Judean Shephelah.” The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 46, no. 4, 1983, pp. 210–221. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3209780. Eck, Werner. “The Bar Kokhba Revolt: The Roman Point of View.” The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 89, 1999, pp. 76–89. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/300735. Moorhead, Sam. “Editorial: Hadrian, Empire and Conflict.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly, vol. 140, no. 3, Nov. 2008, pp. 155–156. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1179/174313008X341537. Sporty, Lawrence D. “Identifying the Curving Line on the Bar-Kokhba Temple Coin.” The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 46, no. 2, 1983, pp. 121–123. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3209651. Ashmolean Museum https://www.ashmolean.org/tetradrachm-judaea Britannica online "Bar Kokhba," https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bar-Kokhba-Jewish-leader Jewish Virtual Library https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-bar-kokhba-revolt-132-135-ce